TappedIn notes, July 11 Meeting, am - Online Discussion
These are the notes from the discussion that happened on TappedIn as sent to Felicia's email. I have put the comments into broader categories headed by Suggestions, sub-headings - About TappedIn, Workshop series/Format, Audience, Purpose/Goals, Themes/Workshop Focus, Strategies - and Novel Ideas. Of course there is overlap, some comments fall into more than one category. There are also a list of questions that transcend across categories. Reorder, add your own categories, have fun: Suggestions About Using TappedIn PaulA: By the way... if you ever do this with a group of teachers or students... don't try to help people set up AND moderate at the same time Workshop series/Format - PaulA: There seems to be some consensus around doing short workshops. KenS: maybe a set of workshops for different purposes PaulA: but could these add up to a whole 4-credit course? FeliciaG: 1: Hire Ken to do at least one and possibly three workshop series on technology. PaulA: How many hours would that be? Would it be 3 credits? MarcieW: by short workshops do you mean, say, 3 or 4 sessions? KateNM: It seems like short focused workshops suit one sort of need, but there are those who might benefit from something more intensive MarcieW: what is a workshop series, Felicia? how many sessions? NancyAM: I'm thinking of a workshop series of probably 3 or 4 sessions. We have tech money that we can use to actually pay people to attend some of these. PaulA: We need two sessions each month, I think. PatsyWo: If we do 2 per month, let's not have both on Saturday. KateNM: But we also had this idea of a more intensive 2-3 day retreat, or some form of the First Saturdays (maybe more intensive than once a month) PaulA: Is that too many? PaulA: Could we start with a retreat... so that it gets kicked off with a lot of attention? KateNM: Is this the ONLY set of workshops, or will there be different tracks for different purposes??? PatsyWo: I think more learning would take place if we had concentrated time for discrete modules. Two weeks four times, twice a week for four weeks. Three days in a row during a break from school. Repetition close together in time. KenS: different tracks can happen at different times PaulA: What about Fridays... what would integrating technology into the Friday's look like? NancyAM: I'm with Kate we need a series of workshops for beginners. They should be small or if they are larger they should have lots of interns who can offer support as the facilitator moves ahead with those who are getting it. I’m not sure about Blackboard. It does offer more options than nicenet but nicenet is teacher friendly and can be used with students. Audience – KenS: felicia, or was it you kate that suggested different workshops for consultants and others for teachers KarenGr: Would the idea be that there might be something intensive for folks that want that and also some shorter workshops? FeliciaG: we need different workshops for teachers and consultants because the consultants need to be in the lead. However, that doesn't mean that consultants couldn't take workshops designed for teachers and vice versa. FeliciaG: Who would we invite to the retreat? Former techies with NYCWP? anybody? PaulA: I'd be happy for the different tracks, but would we have enough people? NancyAM: I think we need to be aware of the divide I spoke about and that we need a retreat that will introduce interested people who are just beginning with blogs and those who are ready to go further and investigate other things, like wikis and podcasting. KateNM: I would love to see us having a beginners' track in our technology plans: a group for people to work at a slower pace, go from fear and aversion to seeing what the point is and how to do it PatsyWo: Rather than a track, a tack. I think we need to consider the needs of beginners and be ready to address them. Purpose/Goals – KenS: should we talk about what we're going to present in these workshops before deciding on how many there will be? FeliciaG: Who is going to do and attend two sessions a month? I think before we can decide on how long or how much we need to decide on what. MarcieW: we should be clear about the goals of the workshops, then what we will present. MarcieW: What are we trying to make happen through these workshops? FeliciaG: We have multi purposes depending upon who we are serving. PaulA: Why do we want to have technology workshops? KenS: one purpose ought to be to get the folks who are running workshops in tune with one another KateNM: It seems like we identified a need for several things: 1/ support for beginners/new users, 2/ focused workshops on useful implementations of tech (like creating online gallery walks), and 3/ support for intermediate/advanced users PatsyWo: to get students writing to communicate FeliciaG: To help teachers learn to use computers more effectively - in terms of supporting and promoting writing/literacy - with students. MarcieW: I see as one overarching purpose the need to get technology more integrated into our inservice work, rather than "doing technology." KenS: how many courses should be using blogs, wiki's etc. PaulA: A different purpose needs to be gathering together people who are starting to use this stuff to think about it together. FeliciaG: Paul, that would be our Tech Advisory Committee, no?\ PatsyWo: Thinking about this together to what end? KarenGr: What Marcie said about integrating technology with our other work seems important, yet hard to do in some ways. MarcieW: that's why it's a goal. FeliciaG: Thinking together to decide what makes the most sense in terms of our (NYCWP) other values and goals. KateNM: karen--yes, because it can't be top-down. We can't tell tcs to use tech, they have to become comfortable and then decide how it fits in Themes/Workshop focus – KenS: maybe patsy and i can talk about how the NRI group would have been different if it were introduced properly to the blog FeliciaG: But blogs aren't the only thing. KenS: and then decide if something similar should be done for all other classes. FeliciaG: There are some teachers who may want and feel more comfortable starting with using word to track changes as a way of integrating revision with computer use. MarcieW: I think the track function is an important tech integration. PatsyWo: Tracking changes is Word is good. Do we have any focus for our purpose here? Strategies – KenS: kate, should we then 'pair' people together then? KateNM: Well, for example, we need the people who are comfortable with tech to be there, supporting, suggesting, maybe co-teaching. Nicenet, yes, that's easy. But the more complex stuff has to be more than mandated PatsyWo: I think the NRI people wanted more time together in a lab setting to practice with support at their elbows. KenS: and then decide on what can be done with the different tracks KenS: kate, folks also need software to go home with too. Novel Ideas PatsyWo: We could ask people who have taken part in Nicenet to evaluate it for us. That could be the survey I was talking about before. FeliciaG: maybe should look back at how far we've come? FeliciaG: I like the idea of asking teachers to evaluate their use of nicenet. But I don't think we can rely on a survey for direction because I think there is too much that teachers don't know about technology. FeliciaG: Who can we call on to be interns? MarcieW: kids, that was a response to Felicia FeliciaG: What kids? How do we identify them? A good idea. KenS: maybe some of paul's kids or others from the schools that have been blogging since the spring MarcieW: this is a little OT, but can we think about some pilot classrooms within our inservice program? KateNM: Marcie do you mean inservice seminars focused on tech? MarcieW: no I mean TCs working with a teacher who has access to and wants to use tech Questions KenS: if we are defining folks by there comfort zone with technology, we ought to talk about which technology to present to them and which wp practice goes with it FeliciaG: What does it take to become comfortable with technology? Sometimes you need a law to make people accept the untenable. PatsyWo: It takes time to become comfortable, lots of time for some. MarcieW: I agree with Felicia. We said that everyone needed to use Nicenet to meet Lehman requirements for course hours. That seemed to work. KenS: how different is nicenet to blackboard? MarcieW: would it make sense for some WP courses to have Blackboard sites? I can make this happen. PaulA: What does it mean to be a beginner? KenS: a beginner is someone who might be new to the technologies we want to present in a workshop KateNM: And frankly, some people are not beginners so much as phobic KateNM: "And that's okay KateNM: Beginners self select... PatsyWo: I think it's a matter of being scared. Some new to computers have no fear. KateNM: Though we might encourage some people to leap to a non-beginner group at the outset of a course KenS: i think the phobia thing can be overcome once folks can see and the usefulness of technology in their classrooms and are given the time to create something they will use in their classroom KateNM: I worked with phobic/beginners this last year and they just need exposure and time and space Return to New York City Writing Project